Trump Giving Waivers So Appointees Can Get Around Ethics Rules: Report
The Trump administration has secretly issued waivers to ethics rules in order to allow individuals who would violate ethics rules be appointed to jobs in the administration.
According to a report by the New York Times, in collaboration with ProPublica, at least two of Donald Trump’s appointees in the White House may have violated ethics rules. “But evaluating if and when such violations have occurred has become almost impossible because the Trump administration is secretly issuing waivers to the rules,” The New York Times explained.
“Trump is populating the White House and federal agencies with former lobbyists, lawyers and consultants who in many cases are helping to craft new policies for the same industries in which they recently earned a paycheck,” The Times reported.
The Trump White House is vulnerable to conflicts of interest, The New York Times notes, “particularly after the president eliminated an ethics provision that prohibits lobbyists from joining agencies they lobbied in the prior two years.”
In January, as one of his first moves as president, Donald Trump signed an order making it easier for former lobbyists to get waivers that would allow them to have government jobs that involve issues that could benefit their former clients.
According to the New York Times, “During the Obama administration, these waivers were given only under a narrow set of circumstances, and had to be filed and explained in an annual report for public inspection, Mr. Shaub said. The waivers were also previously posted on the Government Ethics website. None have been posted since Mr. Trump became president, as sharing them is no longer required.”
And the director of the Office of Government Ethics Walter Shaub says about the Trump administration’s waivers, “There’s no transparency, and I have no idea how many waivers have been issued.”
